diff --git a/pageserver/src/tenant/storage_layer/layer.rs b/pageserver/src/tenant/storage_layer/layer.rs
index 94edfa6fe0..fc4ba75dfc 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/tenant/storage_layer/layer.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/tenant/storage_layer/layer.rs
@@ -637,14 +637,16 @@ impl LayerInner {
 
                 // check if we really need to be downloaded; could have been already downloaded by a
                 // cancelled previous attempt.
-                //
-                // FIXME: what if it's a directory? that is currently needs_download == true
                 let needs_download = self
                     .needs_download()
                     .await
                     .map_err(DownloadError::PreStatFailed)?;
 
                 let permit = if let Some(reason) = needs_download {
+                    if let NeedsDownload::NotFile(ft) = reason {
+                        return Err(DownloadError::NotFile(ft));
+                    }
+
                     // only reset this after we've decided we really need to download. otherwise it'd
                     // be impossible to mark cancelled downloads for eviction, like one could imagine
                     // we would like to do for prefetching which was not needed.
@@ -883,7 +885,7 @@ impl LayerInner {
     fn is_file_present_and_good_size(&self, m: &std::fs::Metadata) -> Result<(), NeedsDownload> {
         // in future, this should include sha2-256 validation of the file.
         if !m.is_file() {
-            Err(NeedsDownload::NotFile)
+            Err(NeedsDownload::NotFile(m.file_type()))
         } else if m.len() != self.desc.file_size {
             Err(NeedsDownload::WrongSize {
                 actual: m.len(),
@@ -1082,6 +1084,8 @@ enum DownloadError {
     ContextAndConfigReallyDeniesDownloads,
     #[error("downloading is really required but not allowed by this method")]
     DownloadRequired,
+    #[error("layer path exists, but it is not a file: {0:?}")]
+    NotFile(std::fs::FileType),
     /// Why no error here? Because it will be reported by page_service. We should had also done
     /// retries already.
     #[error("downloading evicted layer file failed")]
@@ -1097,7 +1101,7 @@ enum DownloadError {
 #[derive(Debug, PartialEq)]
 pub(crate) enum NeedsDownload {
     NotFound,
-    NotFile,
+    NotFile(std::fs::FileType),
     WrongSize { actual: u64, expected: u64 },
 }
 
@@ -1105,7 +1109,7 @@ impl std::fmt::Display for NeedsDownload {
     fn fmt(&self, f: &mut std::fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> std::fmt::Result {
         match self {
             NeedsDownload::NotFound => write!(f, "file was not found"),
-            NeedsDownload::NotFile => write!(f, "path is not a file"),
+            NeedsDownload::NotFile(ft) => write!(f, "path is not a file; {ft:?}"),
             NeedsDownload::WrongSize { actual, expected } => {
                 write!(f, "file size mismatch {actual} vs. {expected}")
             }